Seattle rapper’s song gets teacher suspended

And we’re not South Lyon, Mich., where a middle school teacher was suspended after playing Macklemore’s song for her eighth graders. The song addresses homophobia and supports gay marriage.

“This is one of the things in my school that we’re trying to practice and we’re trying to instill in our students is tolerance to diversity,” a FOX affiliate quoted teacher Susan Johnson as saying. But she was given a three-day suspension after playing the song, for which the district said she had failed to “follow protocol.”

This incident is just one of tens of thousands that have happened across the country where schools have exposed a latent homophobia, preventing safe space for all young people to feel confident in being themselves. It’s clear that Ms. Johnson felt bullying and “gay bashing” were issues that needed to be addressed, and by doing so, was punished.

I wrote the song “Same Love,” not with the expectation that it would cure homophobia and lead to marriage equality across the US (although that’d be awesome). It was written with the hope that it would facilitate dialogue and through those conversations understanding and empathy would emerge.

UPDATE: On Friday, Associated Press national music writer Chris Talbott published a story that said Seattle’s Macklemore & Ryan Lewis are indeed shaking up the hip-hop paradigm, something those that have followed the duo’s quick ascent knew they would do. You can read that story here.